Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/901

 the Legislature to enlarge or diminish the class of voters comprehended within the constitutional definition." [The court had forgotten about that. Legislature of 1807. ]

This gave the opportunity for those who were opposed to women's exercising the School Suffrage. At a special election for school trustees held in Vineland, July 27, 1894, the women were forcibly prevented from depositing their ballots. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction was appealed to and he directed the county superintendent to appoint a board of trustees, as the election from which the women were excluded was illegal. This was done on the advice of the Attorney-General, who held that the constitution by empowering the Legislature to "provide for the maintenance and support of a system of free public schools," gave it the power to confer on women the right to vote at school meetings for school officers.

Without following the details it is only necessary to relate that the Supreme Court declared that "the State constitution says, 'Every male citizen, etc., shall be entitled to vote for all officers that are now or may be hereafter elective by the people' (!) and school trustees are elective officers within this provision, therefore the Act allowing women to vote for them is unconstitutional."

Women had been voting for these officers seven years under this Act, and always for the benefit of the schools, according to the almost universal testimony of educational authorities. It now became necessary, in order to continue this privilege, to obtain an amendment to the constitution. The story of the three years' effort made by the State Suffrage Association for this purpose is related earlier in the chapter. Since this had to be made they begged that the amendment might include School Suffrage for the women in towns and cities also, but this was refused. And yet even a proposition to restore School Suffrage to those of villages and rural districts, when submitted to the voters, was defeated at the election on Sept. 28, 1897, by 65,029 yeas, 75,170 nays, Over 10,000 majority.

While the Supreme Court decision took away the vote for trustees it did not interfere with the right of women in villages and country districts to vote on questions of bonds and appropri-